The Workers' Council of
the United States was a short-lived independent organization
which emerged from the Socialist Party of America after its 1921
National Convention held at Detroit. The group was comprised
of the members of the SP faction known as "The Committee
for the Third International," which included prominently
among its members J. Louis Engdahl, former editor of The American
Socialist, and William F. Kruse, former head of the SP's
youth section. Also forming a part of this small group were a
host of individuals who played a significant role in the Jewish
Socialist Federation, including Alexander Trachtenberg, Benjamin
Glassberg, Moissaye J. Olgin, and J.B. Salutsky.

The Workers' Council of
the United States published ten issues of a biweekly newspaper
called The Workers' Council, and at least one pamphlet,
entitled Go to the Masses! J. Louis Engdahl was the Secretary
of the organization, which maintained an office located at 80
E 11th Street in New York City.

The Workers' Council was
one of the organizations signing the
call for the formation
of a legal Workers Party of America in November of 1921 and dissolved
itself into that new organization at its December 1921 founding
convention.

APRIL

"The Workers' Council:
An Organ for the Third International," by Benjamin Glassberg
[April 1, 1921] Unsigned
lead editorial announcing the formation of a new publication
aiming to "become the expression of revolutionary Socialism"
and to carry agitation for the Third International "into
working class circles that have never been reached before."
The Workers' Council was clearly intended as a publication
rather than as a political organization, and was closely linked
to the Left Wing still inside the Socialist Party. Secretary
of the Editorial Board was Benjamin Glassberg, and Secretary
of the publishing association which produced the journal was
Walter M. Cook -- a person depicted as a sort of Party Regular
alter-ego of Julius Gerber and Adolph Germer in the pages of
Theodore Draper's history of the early Communist American Communist
movement. Mounting frustration with the Socialist Party is clear,
the organization being characterized as "vacillating between
the Second and the Third International, standing upon a platform
of ineffectual reforms and parliamentarism of the kind that have,
since the war, been discarded by every European socialist party
outside of the Second International" and thus "not
today the instrument of revolutionary working class education
and action."

JUNE

"Proceedings of the SP National
Convention at Detroit: Nationalistic Spirit Rules. Delegates
Repudiate Affiliation with 3rd International. Left Wing Hopelessly
Weak. 'Milwaukee Socialism' in Complete Control," by Thurber
Lewis [events of June 25-29, 1921] An extensive first-hand account of the 1921 Socialist
Party convention in Detroit, at which the SPA stepped away definitively
from any possible affiliation with the Third International. Since
no stenogram exists for this gathering , Lewis' account has the
effect of filling in blank spots in our information. One scene
related by Lewis is particularly dramatic: on the last day of
the gathering, some 100 nationalists from the "Disabled
Veterans of the World War" marched into the high school
auditorium where the convention was being held. There were only
39 regular and 11 fraternal delegates to the convention -- they
were thus outnumbered by 2:1. Their spokesman, a man named Horr
from Seattle, attempted intimidation, as Lewis recounts: "He
said that the news had reached them that there was evidence of
disloyalty at the convention. He 'hoped to God the reports were
untrue.' But if it were true that someone said the red flag of
Internationalism was the only flag (Engdahl), if there were those
here who advocated force, he went on in a passion, let them come
outside. Of course, no one arose to comply. He then warned the
convention that 'force would be met with force.'" Lewis
expresses grudging admiration for the brave response by the Socialists'
chairman of the day, Cameron King of California, who told the
veterans: "As Americans we demand the right of free speech,
free press, and free assemblage. You have suffered, it is true,
but we, too have suffered," he went on. "If we had
had our way, you would not have had to suffer." Lewis comments
that "The Vets were of course whipped, and they showed it
as they meekly filed out," although he cattily remarks that
the Right Wing veterans had been "applauded by the delegation,
coming in and going out."

"Berger's Convention,"
by John Keracher [events of June 25-29, 1921] This is an interesting perspective
of the 1921 Detroit Convention of the Socialist Party of America,
written by the leader of the Proletarian Party of America (based
in Detroit) and published in that organization's official organ.
Keracher sees the 1921 SPA Convention as a triumph of "Bergerism,"
with the new SPA "Left Wing" based around the publication
The Workers Council and the Chicago party organization
tiny, isolated, and decisively defeated. "These delegates
had practically no support, a fact that was quickly taken advantage
of by Berger, who made them the target for his shafts of wit,"
Keracher notes, adding that the most controversial matter --
the question of international affiliation -- readily disposed
of on the first day of the proceedings, with association with
the 3rd and 2-1/2 Internationals defeated handily and a decision
not to affiliate with any international body passed by a vote
of 31 to 8. Berger mockingly referred to the Left Wing as "Chicago
Communists," Keracher notes, adding that he talked down
to Left Wing leader William Kruse "like a daddy talking
to a wayward boy, hoping that he would bye and bye grow into
a great big man." Keracher also emphasizes the debate over
the question of the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat,"
with the Left Wing's endorsement of the concept of a "Dictatorship
of the Proletariat" in the transition period from Capitalism
to Communism defeated by a big majority. Thus "these 'pure
democrats' who expelled only 60 percent of their membership expressed
themselves as 'opposed to the rule of any Minority,'" Keracher
snidely observes. A further split of the SPA Left Wing in the
near future is anticipated by Keracher.

JULY

"'Farewell!' to the Socialist
Party: An Appeal to Its Remaining Members: Statement by the Committee
for the Third International of the Socialist Party to the Members
of the Socialist Party." [Circa July 1921]. The Committee for the Third International was
the organized faction for Left Wing realignment of the Socialist
Party of America in 1920-21, after the departure of the great
bulk of the Left Wing Section for the Communist Party of America,
Communist Labor Party of America, and Proletarian Party of America.
Headed by Secretary J. Louis Engdahl and including such future
Communist leadership cadres as William F. Kruse, Benjamin Glassberg,
Alexander Trachtenberg, J.B. Salutsky, and Moissaye Olgin, the
Committee for the Third International formally left the SPA with
this statement, published as a pamphlet in the aftermath of the
June 25-29, 1921 Convention of the party. "A new home for
constructive revolutionary Socialism must be built. Another political
party of the working class must be established with the passing
of the Socialist Party," the farewell statement declared.
In the interim, a formal organization called The Workers' Council
was established -- a group which merged with the American Labor
Alliance and elements of the majority underground CPA to form
the Workers Party of America in December 1921.

OCTOBER

"'In Re: Workers Council.':
Report of a Meeting Held in New York, Oct. 8, 1921," by
Department of Justice Undercover Agent "P-134" This is an unusual document, the
report of an undercover agent of the Department of Justice's
Bureau of Investigation of an open meeting of the Workers' Council
group in New York City. Agent "P-134" quotes Secretary
of the Workers' Council J. Louis Engdahl as saying that "he
is a Communist, and that the Workers Council is organizing for
the purpose of establishing Socialist Soviet Republic in the
US." He quotes Engdahl as saying that the primary mission
of the group is to "help all the revolutionary classes unite
into a true revolutionary Socialist organization." The meeting
was also addressed by Benjamin Glassberg, Rose Weiss, Comrade
Ligoria of the Italian movement, Alexander Trachtenberg, I. Cohen
of the Independent YPSL, and Ludwig Lore of the Newyorker
Volkszeitung. Agent "P-134" quotes Lore as admitting
his membership in the Communist Party of America and declaring
that "the American working class will not take any orders
from a clique, namely, the [CEC] of the Communist Party of America,
which is termed illegal and underground." Lore seems to
have taken a similar independent position towards the Executive
Committee of the Comintern, saying that regardless of "whether
the 3rd International says that Workers Council is proper or
not, they will go before the masses openly and preach Communism
and the establishment of a Soviet Republic in the United States."
Agent "P-134" states that Lore "also said the
Workers Council will organize the class conscious revolutionary
forces of this country regardless of what the orders from Moscow
may be, and carry on their educational campaign organizing mass
open organizations, whether it be legal or not..."

"Socialist Party Declared
Dead: Ex-Members Dine, Chant Requiem for Organization in Various
Keys." (NY Call) [event of Oct. 8, 1921] This short news report in the
New York Call notes the formation of the Workers Council organization
by anti-Socialist Party members of the Jewish Socialist Federation
and the newly departed SP Left Wingers of the Committee for the
Third International. This article chronicles a dinner held in
New York City and addressed by J.L. Engdahl, Benjamin Glassberg,
J.B. Salutsky, Rose Weiss, Alexander Trachtenberg, L. DeGregoria,
Isadore Cohen, and Ludwig P. Lore. The purge of Communists at
the Rand School of Social Science seems to have been a contributing
factor to the formation of the Workers Council organization,
with both Glassberg and Trachtenberg alluding to the event, the
latter of whom said: "I have tried to continue on in the
Socialist Party. A few weeks ago I found that it was impossible
to stay in. Now is the time to build up a class-conscious, revolutionary
party that will stay our in the open." Keynote speaker was
Lore, who told the attendees ""We need the Communist
Party. We need frank discussion and education for the masses.
This is the movement which will give us what we want and need."

"The Open Communist Party
-- The Task of the Hour," unsigned appeal by The Workers'
Council. [Oct. 15, 1921] While
there was stiff opposition to liquidation of the underground
party inside the unified CPA itself, there was a countervailing
tendency standing outside of the ranks of the party pushing in
exactly the opposite direction -- for the elimination of the
underground apparatus and for commitment to a fully legalized
communist movement. This tendency's organizational expression
was "The Workers' Council" -- formerly the "Committee
for the Third International of the Socialist Party," which
departed that organization after the June 1921 Detroit Convention
of the SPA. This appeal of the Workers' Council states that the
"infantile radicalism" of the newborn communist movement
was contemptuous of mass movements and "called for small,
intensely class-conscious organizations that should take upon
themselves the leadership in the approaching struggle against
world capitalism." This perspective had been denounced by
Lenin and was refuted by the Comintern at its recently concluded
Third Congress. Instead, the Comintern now called for participation
in the actually existing conservative unions and "openly
condemns the agitation for armed insurrection and open rebellion
in countries where the revolution is still in the distant future
and insists that the communist movement, in every country, must
proceed at once to the creation of an open, aboveboard mass movement."
The secret movement had been intellectually stultifying for the
American party, the Workers' Council declared, and its secrets
were no secret to authorities, who had inevitably made use of
espionage to penetrate the underground organization. The underground
form had become an end in itself. It was a form unable to adapt
to crisis and dominated by a handful of romanticist underground
leaders. Instead, the Workers' Council called for an open organization,
a form able to do effective work. "There could be no better
time. Raise your voices, Comrades. Come out of your cellars into
the open. Go to your brothers in the mills, the mines, and the
factories, and talk to them openly, fearlessly."

NOVEMBER

"We Want an Open Communist
Party." Unsigned appeal by The Workers' Council. [Nov. 15,
1921] This unsigned
statement from the pages of The Workers' Council is a
pointed attack on the plan of some inside the underground CPA
to maintain a parallel secret organization in conjunction with
the open Communist Party designed "to act in the capacity
of a controlling organ, directing the activities of the public
party, representing it internationally, determining its tactics
and its principles.They insist on a system of parallel underground
groups whose membership shall, in all important questions, act
as a determined unit in the open organization." This amounts
to perpetuation of the fundamental error, the WC statement contends,
since "the underground form of organization places a premium
on mediocrity. That part of the membership that has the destinies
of the movement most at heart, and feels its individual responsibility
most keenly, that can think for itself and see the mistakes that
are being made, must struggle against almost impossible odds
to make itself heard and to make its influence felt." At
the same time, "Executive offices will be filled with men
and women who will take dictation, who can be relied upon to
carry out every order that is handed down to them." The
purity of a sect is what is sought by the advocates of a directing
underground structure. "But there is ever present the danger
that discipline becomes tyranny." Examples of the imposition
of party discipline for dubious objectives are cited for the
German and American Socialist movements. This excessive discipline
is dangerous and needless, the Workers' Council statement argues,
since "the movement whose membership understands so little
of its ideals and purposes as to need the watchful eye of a secret
caucus, is a menace to the world revolution and should be abandoned."

"The Communists Answer,"
by Jay Lovestone [Nov. 26, 1921] Member of the Central Executive Committee of the
Communist Party of America Jay Lovestone (writing as "R.B.
Nelson") vigorously replies to charges levied by the Workers'
Council group that the CPA went underground of its own volition,
due to the "revolutionary romanticism" of many of its
leading members -- a decision which lead to a separation from
the masses of American labor and to the fostering of a false
sense of security. Lovestone replies that the decision to go
underground was in no way a choice: "While the 'above-boarders'
of the Workers' Council were striving to win over the traitorous
Socialist Party to a 'real, revolutionary international' (whatever
that could have meant after 40,000 to 60,000 suspected of being
Communists were expelled), the American Communists were openly
fighting as Communists and were being jailed for scores of years
of penal servitude." It was through the arrest and jailing
of thousands in Dec. 1919 and Jan. 1920 that finally the communists
"were driven to cover for protection and worked underground
in order to save their organization," Lovestone declares,
adding that "Since then the communists have tried their
best to work in the open." The underground form of organization
was not an end in and of itself, Lovestone states, noting that
the Comintern itself declared for the need of parallel legal
and illegal organizations in each country. The Comintern had
never supported sectarian and "splendid-isolationist"
policies, Lovestone declares and he states his belief that the
inconsistent positions of the Workers' Council group "shows
clearly that our Left Wing Socialist comrades were not in the
past and are not even today ready to accept fully the principles
and tactics of the Third International."